The Prime-Time Presidency

The West Wing and U.S. Nationalism

Trevor Parry-Giles and Shawn J. Parry-Giles

Publication Year: 2006

Contrasting strong women and multiculturalism with portrayals of a heroic white male leading the nation into battle, The Prime-Time Presidency explores the NBC drama The West Wing, paying particular attention to its role in promoting cultural meaning about the presidency and U.S. nationalism. Based in a careful, detailed analysis of the "first term" of The West Wing's President Josiah Bartlet, this criticism highlights the ways the text negotiates powerful tensions and complex ambiguities at the base of U.S. national identity--particularly the role of gender, race, and militarism in the construction of U.S. nationalism. Unlike scattered and disparate collections of essays, Trevor Parry-Giles and Shawn J. Parry-Giles offer a sustained, ideologically driven criticism of The West Wing. The Prime-time Presidency presents a detailed critique of the program rooted in presidential history, an appreciation of television's power as a source of political meaning, and television's contribution to the articulation of U.S. national identity.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Our interest in The West Wing began, like so many other avid
viewers, with the show’s debut in 1999 and has not waned since. Our academic
interest in the program began at almost the same time, and along the
way numerous individuals have contributed to our thinking about the program,
the issues it raises, ...

Introduction: The Presidency, Prime-Time Popular Culture, and U.S. Nationalism

On December 13, 2000, millions of Americans turned to their television
sets at 9:00 p.m. EST to view a program about presidential politics.NBC
promised viewers that Wednesday evening a gripping and insightful exploration
of an assassination attempt on senior White House staff members. ...

1. The West Wing as a Political Romance

In 2001 the Council for Excellence in Government conducted a survey
that asked Americans for their perceptions about government employees.
The study discovered that elected officials had the “second most improved
image” among all occupations, moving them ahead of business leaders and
teachers in public esteem. ...

2. Gendered Nationalism and The West Wing

For many scholars the concepts of nationalism and gender are
inextricable. As Jean Pickering and Suzanne Kehde argue,“Nationalism is the
field over which gender differences are played out, making possible what otherwise
seems an irrational if common disposition of putative gender differences.”1 ...

3. Racialized Nationalism and The West Wing

From its very constitutional beginning, race and citizenship were
contested issues for the United States. In Article 1, section 2 of the Constitution,
significantly, the measure of taxation was calculated “by adding the
whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term
of Years, ...

4. Militarized Nationalism and The West Wing

Article 2, section 1, of the Constitution declares, “The executive
Power shall be vested in the President of the United States,” who will likewise
serve, section 2 commands, as the “Commander in Chief of the Army
and Navy of the United States, and of the militias of the several states, when
called into the actual Service of the United States.” ...

5. The West Wing's Prime-Time Nationalism

On the morning of September 11, 2001, a worldwide audience
watched in horror as the World Trade Center collapsed, a portion of the Pentagon
was destroyed, and another airliner crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
That date has joined other extraordinary moments in U.S. history—December
7, 1941, November 22, 1963, and April 19, 1995 ...

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